Digital Alchemy (eBook)

This is the eBook version of the printed book.Leveraging her training as a traditional painter and printmaker, Bonny Lhotka brings new innovations and inventions that combine the best of centuries of printmaking techniques with modern technology to create unique works of art and photography. After years of experimentation and development, these new processes allow alternative photographers, traditional printmakers, and 21st century digital artists to express their creative voice in ways never before possible. Both by adding digital images to their traditional prints and taking their digital works into the tactile world, photographers, printmakers, and artists will find that they can easily add these processes to their studios.

The book covers the basic processes and materials to transfer images to a variety of surfaces, including wood, plaster, stone, and plastic. It moves on to allow the creation of images on metal through either direct printing or transfers using affordable printers. More advanced processes include the creation of decals, skins, and complex mixed media compositions that are truly unique. For each of the more than 20 individual projects and processes, the book provides step-by-step instructions and tips suitable for professional photographers and artists, interested students, and enthusiastic hobbyists.

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In Digital Alchemy, acclaimed printmaker Bonny Pierce Lhotka shows how to turn your standard inkjet printer into a seemingly magical instrument capable of transforming your printed images into true works of art. Using plenty of visuals and straightforward terms, Lhotka walks you step-by-step through over a dozen projects. Forget printing on boring old paper, in Digital Alchemy, you'll learn how to transfer and print images to a variety of surfaces including metal, wood, fabric, stone, and plastic using the techniques Lhotka's spent years developing. If you're a photographer looking for new ways to personalize your work or a digital artist who's ready to take your work to the next level, you'll find all of the tools, techniques, and inspiration you need in this book. Lhotka's enthusiasm for experimenting with unusual printing materials and processes has led her to create new and amazing transfer techniques, including one that resembles a Polaroid(TM) transfer on steroids. She also shows you how to make prints using unexpected, everyday materials such as hand sanitizer and gelatin. You'll even learn direct printing, the technique for sending your custom substrate through your printer almost as if it were paper. In Digital Alchemy, you'll learn how to: Transfer images to metal, wood, plastic, and other materials that will not feed through an inkjet printer Print directly on metal for a fraction of the cost of using a print service Simulate a print from an expensive UV flatbed printer using an inexpensive desktop printer Use carrier sheets and paintable precoats to print on almost any surface Achieve near-lithographic quality digital prints with transfer processes to uncoated fine art paper In addition to the tutorials in the book, you can watch Lhotka in action on the included DVD-ROM, which has over 60 minutes of video footage where you'll learn how to perform an alcohol gel transfer, transfer an image to a wooden surface, use your inkjet printer to achieve remarkable prints, and more. Simply insert the DVD-ROM into your computer's DVD drive. Note, this DVD-ROM will not work in TV DVD players.